Back to directory

Sacha Reichman

Group Leader, Research associate
Research Team
Retinal development and repair: use of pluripotent stem cells
Specialty areas
High throughput drug screening and disease modeling using human iPS-derived retinal cells for the treatment of inherited and complex retinal degenerative diseases (Retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, AMD)

Scientific biography

Working on retina since 2004, Sacha Reichman installed human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generation and culture at the vision institute in 2011. He developed an innovative retinal differentiation method using human iPSCs to create mini-retinas named retinal organoids (Reichman et al., PNAS 2014 and Reichman et al., Stem Cell 2017). His group focuses on drug discovery and develops in vitro diseases model for high throughput screening (HTS) campaigns. Heathy or patient iPSC-derived retinal cells are used to identify small molecules to prevent and treat degenerative retinal disease as retinitis pigmentosa or aged-related macular degeneration.

In 2023, Sacha Reichman’s group developed innovative culture conditions creating a bankable retinal multipotent cell line (Gozlan et al., Commun. Biol 2023). This cell line of retinal progenitors is able to produce all retinal cell types and particularly the photoreceptor precursors in large numbers that are essential for pharmacological treatments research and the development of regenerative medicine.

Since 2019, Sacha Reichman directs a research group in the Olivier Goureau’s team (Retinal development and repair). The group is composed by 1 PhD student (Marilou Clémençon) and 2 engineers (Marie Rozen and Jeremy Brogard).

Expertises

  • In vitro modeling of human retinal degenerative diseases using retinal organoids (mini-retinas) derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
  • Development of automated assays for high-throughput screening of pharmacological compounds with therapeutic potential.
  • Creation of cryopreservable human retinal cell libraries derived from iPSCs for the development of innovative therapies.

References

Top 5 publications over the last 5 years

  • Gozlan S, Batoumeni V, Fournier T, Nanteau C, Potey A, Clémençon M, Orieux G, Sahel JA, Goureau O, Roger JE, Reichman S. Bankable human iPSC-derived retinal progenitors represent a valuable source of multipotent cells. Commun Biol. 2023.
  • Monfort T, Azzollini S, et al., Reichman S, Thouvenin O, Grieve K. Dynamic full-field optical coherence tomography module adapted to commercial microscopes allows longitudinal in vitro cell culture study. Commun Biol. 2023.
  • Groux K, Verschueren A, Nanteau C, Clémençon M, Fink M, Sahel JA, Boccara C, Paques M, Reichman S, Grieve K. Non invasive live imaging of a novel RPE stress model with Dynamic Full-Field OCT. Commun Biol, 2022.
  • Couturier A, Blot G, Vignaud L, Nanteau C, Slembrouck-Brec A, Fradot V, Acar N, Sahel JA, Tadayoni R, Thuret G, Sennlaub F, Roger JE, Goureau O, Guillonneau X, Reichman S. Reproducing diabetic retinopathy features using newly developed human induced-pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal Müller glial cells. Glia. 2021.
  • Scholler J, Groux K, Goureau O, Sahel JA, Fink M, Reichman S, Boccara C, Grieve K. Dynamic full-field optical coherence tomography: 3D live-imaging of retinal organoids. Light Sci Appl. 2020.

Princeps publications

  • Reichman S, Terray A, Slembrouck A, Nanteau C, Orieux G, Habeler W, Nandrot EF, Sahel JA, Monville C, Goureau O. From confluent human iPS cells to self-forming neural retina and retinal pigmented epithelium. PNAS 2014
  • Reichman S, Slembrouck A, Gagliardi G, Chaffiol A, Terray A, Nanteau C, Potey A, Belle M, Rabesandratana O, Duebel J, Orieux G, Nandrot EF, Sahel JA, Goureau O. Generation of Storable Retinal Organoids and Retinal Pigmented Epithelium from Adherent Human iPS Cells in Xeno-Free and Feeder-Free Conditions. Stem Cells 2017
  • Gagliardi G, Ben M'Barek K, Chaffiol A, Slembrouck-Brec A, Conart JB, Nanteau C, Rabesandratana O, Sahel JA, Duebel J, Orieux G, Reichman S, Goureau O. Characterization and Transplantation of CD73-Positive Photoreceptors Isolated from Human iPSC-Derived Retinal Organoids. Stem Cell Reports 2018

Related patents

  • WO2014174492A1: Methods for obtaining retinal progenitors, retinal pigmented epithelial cells and neural retinal cells (2013, Principal inventor).
  • WO2018149985A1: Feeder-free methods for obtaining retinal progenitors, retinal pigmented epithelial cells and neural retinal cells (2017, Principal inventor).
  • WO2019170766A1: Compositions and methods for efficient amplification of retinal progenitor cells (2018, Principal inventor).

Fundings

Agence National de la Recherche (ANR JC-JC, ANR PRC), Fondation Retina France, Institute Carnot, Fondation Voir et entendre, IHU ForeSight, Fondation de France, SATT-Lutech, Fondation Valentin Haüy, Bouygues.